Dovecote

Do *you* know who Ed Harcourt is?

The boy in the beaten-up velvet jacket picks up his cup. "He's 28, newly and happily married, the son-in-law of an ocarina maker and the great-nephew of Elizabeth David ...he's an agnostic brought up Protestant with a Buddha necklace... a nervous ball of energy, a little black sheep." The boy takes a sip. "And he's a solo artist, a collaborator, a session musician, a part-time blues player and thrash metal band member ... a collector of weird instruments, and a musical whore." Ed Harcourt puts down his coffee and laughs.

Ed Harcourt is a bit raffish and gloriously hungover, but also the best company you could imagine over a fried breakfast in Soho on a warm Saturday morning. He's also hard-working, creative and sickeningly prolific. *The Beautiful Lie*, his fifth album in six years, in between outside projects with bands like Wild Boar and the Dead Thank Yous, is the latest in his line of inventive, adventurous records. And it's the best thing he's ever done.

How do you see your albums now?

Ed slices his poached egg perfectly in two, and thinks back to 2000. "I think of *Maplewood* now as the precocious youngest child record. The one everybody loved dearly and still thinks of very fondly, but it's still full of arrogance. *Here Be Monsters*... was my chronic bronchitis, coughing up blood record. *From Every Sphere* was an end-of-an-era, end-of-a-relationship, crying into my coffee record... and *Strangers* my heady, hazy, oh-my-God I'm in love again, excuse me while I vomit into my coffee record." So does that make *The Beautiful Lie* the post-wedded bliss, settled-down, mature record? "Hardly." Ed laughs. "It's all gothic storytelling, madness, darkness and despair! But it's a record where I bury my ego and look outwards for a change."

At times it's an incredibly personal record, and at others it's subtly political. But the record's main thrust is about Ed falling in love with the idea of stories and inventing other characters and situations. Ed thinks of it as a return to the simplicity and elegance of *Maplewood*; the bulk of it recorded, like *Maplewood* was, on an eight-track in his grandmother's house in Sussex, on a piano made for her back in 1917, with the drums set up out in the hallway. The rest was done in East London's Toe Rag studios, where The White Stripes recorded *Elephant*. Graham Coxon was on hand to lend his guitar for a track and BJ Cole slid in with some mournful pedal steel. It's a record that Ed thinks of as being very homegrown, less in love with the Southern swampiness of Tom Waits and Sparklehorse, than with the romance of Southern England.

It's also a record that I think of as Ed's first grown-up album. His potential to make a record like this has always been there, brooding beautifully through every song he's every written. But with *The Beautiful Lie*, there's a certain alchemy at play. Maybe it's the weight of experience Ed's had, or the years he's spent crafting songs finally coming together to create something incredibly special. His new album is confident, expressive and moving, wide-eyed, big-hearted and hot-blooded, with a musical ambition that dazzles you. It's an album he's grown up with, and an album that wants you to grow with it.

Ed turns serious for a moment, putting his toast down on the table. "This record is the first record I've made that I can listen to and not flinch. I can let people listen to it and be proud, for the very first time. It's funny, but friends have told me that this is the album I'm always been threatening to make." He holds up his silver fork and gives me a big, easy smile. "When I listen back to it, it even *sounds* like the album I've always wanted to make."

We order some more coffee and Ed talks through his songs. They span across the years.

“[Ed Harcourt] was extraordinary – he is a pop songwriter of the highest caliber and a talented, vaguely eccentric performer.” – Wall Street Journal

“Ed Harcourt’s songs are as close to cabaret tunes and 1960s pop as they are to current rock.” – NY Times

“Each song on The Beautiful Lie is tailor made for the local coffeehouse…and just left of center enough to earn him a ‘quirky’ tag.” – ArtistDirect

"The Beautiful Lie is marvelous, each track a lush, inch-perfect melodrama with Harcourt bashing out his demons at the piano." -Mojo

"'The Beautiful Lie' of the title is as eloquent a statement as the material is masterful. It's doomy, it's gothic, it's wonderfully arranged, mostly epic, occasionally sad, sometimes jaunty - and throughout infused with the passion of a storyteller whose delivery and form have finally found synchronicity. A very fine LP." - * * * * - The Fly

"His most mature effort so far. 'I Am The Drug' employs a Tom Waits-ian rhumba-rock groove washed with strings and streaked with spiky astringent guitar to help characterise the insatiable itch of addiction." - * * * * - Independent

"His best since Here Be Monsters. Harcourt's mini-operas pack more incident into their three minutes than many bands manage in a career. A fine songwriter with the flourishes of an at times master showman." - Q

"Ed Harcourt shows many an 'artist' how being productive doesn't mean a drop in quality. He has once again captured that dark, English melancholia and set it to some surprisingly upbeat melodies. A uniquely English talent who continues to strengthen his reputation and build an ever more impressive back catalogue." - Clash

"Late Night Partner is Harcourt at his broken hearted best." - The Guardian

"With so much histrionic angst abound within indie and pop at the moment, it's refreshing to hear a collection of believeable songs and lyrics with a delivery that will touch even the coldest of shoulders." - 89% - Spill

Management: Steve Nice - Nice Management - steve@nicemgmt.com

Booking: Steve Ferguson - Paradigm - sferguson@paradigmagency.com